Financing Meghan and Harry: How rich are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.  Image from Flickr

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their decision to step back as senior royals, one of the things they made clear is that they would endeavour to become financially independent. That means they would cease receiving funds either from Queen Elizabeth II’s sovereign grant fund or Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall. Just how rich are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex? Would they afford their jetsetting lifestyle once funds from the Royal Family cease to flow? 

The Prince of Wales pays for the public duties and partial private expenses of his two sons and their wives, thanks to the sizable income of the Duchy of Cornwall, which earned £21.6 million in 2019.  Accounts from Clarence House show this funding - in the year Meghan officially joined the Royal Family - stood at just over £5 million, up 1.8% on 2017-18.

A small fraction of the Sussexes’ official expenses are also charged against the Sovereign Grant, which is the “the annual funding mechanism of the monarchy that covers the work of the Royal Family in support of HM The Queen including expenses to maintain official residences and The Queen including expenses to maintain official residences and workspaces.” In 2019, the fund covered about five percent of the cost of the Duke and Duchess’ official expenses.

It is expected that the couple would relinquish these money coming from the Sovereign Grant and they already made it clear that “public funding has never been used, nor would it ever be used” for their private expenses. With this, their private travels and personal expenses  will be financed by their own pockets.  After all, Prince Harry is not a poor man and the Duchess of Sussex, before marrying into the House of Windsor, had managed to stash away a comfortable fortune, as well.

Prince Harry is believed to have a personal fortune between $25 and $40 million. Diana, the late Princess of Wales, left a residue estate valued at nearly £13 million, after a deduction of  £8.5 million was made for death duties, to be divided equally by her two songs, Princes William and Harry. Sheer investments by the late princess’ executors, particularly her sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale, more than doubled the trust. Prince Harry inherited his share when he turned 30, by then already valued at $30 million. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother also left him with a substantial chunk of inheritance. “Funds with initial investments of £6.9 million ($11 million) were set up for Harry and, with interest, are now worth at least £10 million ($17 million). Prince Charles is reputed to have set aside for his son’s money which must now be worth 8 million. It is likely that Harry has the larger portion of this,” writes Mail on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a May 2019 article on Money places the Duchess’ net worth to be around $5 million thanks to her work on Suits and previous acting jobs. 

Now that they have decided to scale back from their royal duties, will they ever decide to get a job? Dickie Arbiter, a royal commentator and former spokesperson to Queen Elizabeth II explained to BBC: "There is a problem for members of the Royal Family - relatively senior ones, even if they say they're no longer senior - getting jobs, because they are seen to monetise their brand and you run into a whole host of questions about conflict of interest".

Another issue is their security and who will pay for it: "Because they're still going to have to have security - who's going to have to pay for this? Where's the security coming from? Is the Metropolitan Police going to be providing it and if so whether there's going to be any contribution in covering the security cost?" Arbiter raised these questions.

Then, there’s Frogmore Cottage, their official residence in Windsor. Since they would spend half their time in North America, Arbiter also suggested that questions might be raised over £2.4 million of taxpayer-funded renovation of their country home.

All in all, with or without money coming from the Royal Family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could live quite comfortably. And while they would have to weather setbacks and criticisms, the Queen will definitely hammer out a solution to end this debacle.